Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Exit Above, Sadler's Wells

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's work is not to everybody's taste, her humourless approach to uncompromising performance attracting equal amounts of admiration and rejection. Come to think of it, De Keersmaeker herself isn't to everybody's taste, either: she has recently been accused by more than 20 former employees of bullying and body-shaming and of endangering their health by avoiding Covid rules, as well as of high-handed managerial methods and creating an atmosphere of fear among dancers. She has since apologised.

On the positive side, De Keersmaeker, considered by many the mother of European contemporary dance, has a loyal following both in continental Europe and among Sadler's Wells audiences; and the latter will soon be able to experience her latest work, Exit Above, performed by her 13-strong company, Rosas, a Sadler's Wells International Associate Company

Subtitled 'after the tempest,' this is a characteristically idiosyncratic piece, where the dance is, in De Keersmaeker's own words, 'neither "performing", nor effective, nor efficient. It negotiates.' 'The tempest' is a reference to Shakespeare, whose eponymous play runs subliminally through the work; but more obviously its influence is Western blues and pop music. It kicks off with the song 'Walking Blues,' by the legendary blues musician Robert Johnson, and goes on to blend Schubert with an eclectic series of pieces engineered by the folk musician Meskerem Mees.

The overall theme of Exit Above is walking: the choreographer takes this simple movement and adds her signature layers of complexity. Of its performance at last year's Avignon Festival the Financial Times wrote: 'There is breakdancing, death drops, even twerking — startling in De Keersmaeker’s minimalistic universe, and all the more irresistible for it.'